Painted Nudes - Saul Leiter

This is an extraordinary book showing the work of an extraordinary artist. Throughout the 1950's and 60's Saul Leiter was a highly regarded and well known fashion photographer. His work, associated with other associated contemporary photographers, came to be recognized as the 'New York School' of photography.

 

More recently, in the early 2000's, with a resurgent interest in his work, Saul Leiter came to the fore as one of the most accomplished colour photographers of the 20th century. Few of those familiar with his photography are aware that over many years he created a formidable body of paintings and more remarkably, painted photographs.

This superbly produced book is the first ever publication dedicated to this largely unknown part of Leiter’s work which he produced over the course of four decades.

The size of the book is 260x210mm, portrait and casebound. There is a 'tipped in' image printed in four colour, mounted into a 'plate sunk' panel on the front cover, which is also hot foil blocked in two colours. The case is covered with a self coloured, linen embossed bookcovering paper in a deep, rich,  red.

The 160pp book contains a selection of more than 70 painted photographs "intimate, brilliantly coloured pieces that marry Leiter’s two artistic passions. Produced over the course of four decades, these fiercely expressive nudes are a testament to Leiter’s intuitive sense of colour and composition, and showcase a great 20th century artist at his resplendent best."

The foreword by Margit Erb, from the Saul Leiter Foundation in New York is followed by an essay by Mona Gainer-Salim. These incredibly expressive images are  in dispersed with passages from various relevant texts.

The majority of spreads are full colour images bleeding off the page which are discretely merged with other images set within solid colour panels, which are printed out of four colour process. 

The text is printed on our Neptune Unique SoftWhite 120gsm, an uncoated off-white, smooth (yet tactile) text and cover paper - the printed result is simply fantastic.

The book is beautifully bound (section sewn) and has a 14mm spine.

Binding is by Boekbinderij Van Waarden in the Netherlands utilising a special 'lay-flat' technique which retains the integrity of the section sewing thread but without having to 'fight' with the binding! it lays nice and flat...

...as you can see from the below image.

The book is published by Sylph Editions. Design is by Ornan Rotem and production is by Num Stibbe.

Scanning is by Laumont Studio (New York) and the book is typeset in Trinité. The superb printing is offset litho on a Komori H-UV press and is printed by Cassochrome in Belgium. The printed result on this uncoated substrate is simply superb, which combined with the superlative binding makes this a piece of print that is seriously noteworthy.

http://www.sylpheditions.com/
https://www.csc.be/
https://www.boekbinderijvanwaarden.nl/index.en.html

Posted by Justin Hobson 28.11.2022

Jo Malone Notebook

Jo Malone is a London based company renowned for British bespoke fragrances for Women, Men and the Home. The brand is renowned for it's products being immaculately wrapped in a signature cream box with black corners - packaging which defines quality and an understated style. With these values in place, it's unsurprising that the company's literature is of equal quality ...but what shows how deep the ethos of quality runs, this is a notebook produced for internal use and visitors.

The books are A5 (210x148mm) portrait, they have a 4pp cover using our new Blackgold 290gsm which is a new range of black papers which is a super intense, deep black, produced without the use of Carbon Black pigment.

The cover is simply (but beautifully) silkscreen printed in one colour, which is their signature cream colour.

 

The 32pp text just has lines printed using offset litho and is printed on our Neptune Unique SoftWhite 120gsm, which is a paper that Jo Malone has used for many years. 

Click on images to enlarge

The book is simply saddle stitched with two wires...

The notebook has been beautifully produced by Mayfield Press who are based in Oxford.

https://www.jomalone.co.uk/
https://www.mayfield-press.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.01.2019

Jobs from the past - Number 105

Regular followers of this blog will know that my first post of every month is a "job from the past" so that I can show some of the really good work from years gone by and here's one from seventeen years ago...

Jo Malone Express 2001

Jo Malone and husband Gary opened their first store in Walton Street, London in 1994. Since then Jo Malone London has become a name internationally synonymous with all that is most coveted in British style. In 1999, the company was acquired by the Estée Lauder group ensuring investment and a truly global outlook. In November 2001, Jo Malone Express – a bespoke delivery service for sending gifts worldwide was introduced. and this was one of the pieces of collateral used to promote the service.

Click on images to enlarge

Size is 210mm, square and is saddle stitched. There is a 4pp cover with pocket on inside back cover and a 22pp text (the extra 2pp is due to the throw out). Printed offset litho throughout.

Opening spread...

The material chosen is our Neptune Unique SoftWhite, which is an uncoated off-white, smooth (yet tactile) text and cover paper - the printed result is simply fantastic. The cover is 300gsm and the text weight is 155gsm

Click on images to enlarge

There is a 'throw out' which is how it makes 22pp, as you can see below

6pp text, flat...

The remarkable thing about this project is that it has an exceptionally contemporary look and feel. It certainly doesn't feel like a job from 17 years ago!

Click on images to enlarge

Creative Direction and Design is by Claire Lloyd. According to my notes, it was printed by First Impressions (Howden Litho) based in Camberwell. Established and run by Murray Wolfe-Arbiter, First Impressions was a highly regarded London based printer throughout the 1990's. Sadly like many other printing companies of that era, they went bust in August 2004. The file copies I still have are labelled with their stickers. 

Jo Malone continued to use Neptune Unique SoftWhite for mailing and collateral for many years as a more competitive alternative to some of the expensively priced American text and cover papers. Below are some other pieces of collateral produced in the mid 2000's using Neptune Unique SoftWhite for the cards and bespoke envelopes. These were produced by Pegasus Colour (now CPI Colour)

https://www.jomalone.co.uk/
http://www.clairelloyd.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.07.2018

Sylph Editions in China

Based in London, Sylph Editions publish fiction, monographs, theoretical essays, limited-edition art and photography books. Some of their work is of particular interest to buyers in China, so they produced this piece of literature as a promotional piece for the Chinese market.

The size of the publication is 210mm square. It has a 4pp cover printed on our Colorset (100% Recycled) Bright Red 120gsm and a 16pp text printed on our Neptune Unique SoftWhite 120gsm. Notice the deliberately lightweight cover - on a 120gsm! allowing the publication to flop and turn beautifully which suits the size and format superbly ..and it also works with the three hole sewn binding as you can see below:

The text is printed using an HP Indigo digital press and the results are superb, beautifully showing the books and publications that they produce.

Centre spread, with three hole sewing and red thread in spine.

Detail showing the three hole sewing:

The below spread shows the book, Painted Nudes about Saul Leiter's painted works. You can read more about this project here:

Design and Art Direction is by Ornan Rotem at Sylph Editions.

Printing and the terrific finishing - which was all achieved in house is by Zone Graphics, based in Paddock Wood in Kent.

http://www.sylpheditions.com/
www.zonegraphics.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.06.2018

Puck Collected #2

Puck Collective is an evolving group of creatives from around the world. Founded in 2010 by 5 illustrators and artists, Puck has grown into one of the largest and most revered illustration collectives in the UK. What makes Puck unique is that every year they launch a call for entries in order to replenish and invigorate the group with fresh work, new ideas and exciting creatives. Each year, the roster will have a limited amount of spaces, trying to bring in the right mix of people to produce shows and exhibitions, create print runs, small press comics and generally have a whole load of fun in the process. During that year all members contribute towards the publication "Puck Collected" showcasing the groups art, talent and creativity in a beautifully produced limited edition run.

...and this is Puck Collected #2, titled Cosmic

It is a collection of 16 x A6 cards. They are held together in a wonderful folded envelope which is Riso printed in two colour - wonderful fluorescent colour.

These are launched once a year, with new content every issue. The cards (bar one) were printed Offset Litho, on a Heidelberg B2 5 colour Speedmaster at Calverts in London. One of the cards (Marylou Favre) was digitally on a Konica Minolta KM C1100 to give a 'shiny' effect.

The cards are all printed on our Neptune Unique SoftWhite 300gsm, The choice was for an off white board which would work better with the artworks rather than a harsh white. The reverse of the cards are all printed in one colour (blue)

The pack makes a thickness of 5mm.

The collective also spun off to found Puck Studio, an exhibition services and print studio based in East London. Visit the link for further details.

The job was printed and finished by Bethnal Green based print cooperative, Calverts. If you haven't come across them, maybe you should have a look. Unusually for a print company, they are a worker's cooperative, therefore the management, tasks and profits are all shared equitably - almost sounds too good to be true! Production was handled by Samuel Rogers at Calverts
www.calverts.coop
http://cargocollective.com/puckcollective

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.11.2017

National Poetry Day 2017

Today is National Poetry Day! The annual celebration that inspires people throughout the UK to enjoy, discover and share poems.

National Poetry Day was founded in 1994 by the charity Forward Arts Foundation and today it enjoys the support of the BBC, Arts Council England, the Royal Mail and leading literary and cultural organisations, alongside booksellers, publishers, libraries and schools.

...so what better day to write about a wonderful new poetry book, which just happens to be printed on our paper!

Tom Sharp is Creative Director, copywriter, co-founder of The Beautiful Meme,  a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts ...and Tom is also a poet! This is his latest publication titled 'English Pan'.

This is a 32pp publication which is 215x153mm, portrait and is singer sewn using black thread. It is printed in just one colour throughout.

There are twelve poems in the publication, all written by Tom Sharp. The superb illustrations are by Shaun Campbell.

The paper used for the 28pp text is our Neptune Unique Softwhite 120gsm, which is an uncoated off-white, smooth (yet tactile) text and cover paper - just the right material for black type to look brilliant on.

The 'cover' however, is a different matter and is actually on a brand new material in our range called SIXTIES and is 60gsm. It is a fine quality, similar to our Offenbach Bible in many ways but with one major difference - unlike a genuine bible paper which has a high opacity, this new paper has the same translucency as a tracing paper - but it feels like a normal paper! ...as I hope you can see from the picture below:

Wonderful use of a material for a cover - unexpectedly lightweight, covering up; yet revealing the title and it works superbly with the singer sewing:

Each one is hand numbered and a limited edition of 100 and my thanks to Tom for sparing me a copy.

The design is by the studio at The Beautiful Meme. Print and finishing is by Kingsbury Press.

https://nationalpoetryday.co.uk/

http://www.thebeautifulmeme.com/

http://kingsburypress.com/

http://www.studioscamps.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 28.09.2017